Government hopes public will forget: Fitzgerald

Tony Moore and AAP

The Queensland government will tone down its "law and order rhetoric" and "hope the public forgets the damage" done to Queensland's anti-corruption commission, Tony Fitzgerald has predicted.

The corruption fighter issued a media statement on Monday in the wake of Brisbane barrister Tony Morris QC claiming - in an opinion piece he wrote for The Courier Mail - that Mr Fitzgerald had a pro-Labor bias.

Corruption fighter Tony Fitzgerald has predicted the Queensland government will tone down its "law and order rhetoric". Photo: Tamara Voninski

Mr Morris wrote: "Were he the official leader of the Opposition, he could not have done a better hatchet job on the Newman Government".

Mr Morris argued Queensland's new chief justice Tim Carmody - whose appointment Mr Fitzgerald criticised - should be allowed to earn his position in the same way Justice Margaret McMurdo was allowed to grow into the role of Court of Appeal president.

Mr Fitzgerald entered the debate last year when the Newman government proposed, then enacted, major changes to the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

It removed the need for bipartisan support for the appointment of the CMC chairman, raised the threshold for complaints and gave the Attorney-General control of the body's research program.

Advertisement

It then changed the name of the body to the Crime and Corruption Commission.

The CMC evolved from the Criminal Justice Commission, which Mr Fitzgerald set up in July 1989.

Mr Fitzgerald's criticisms of LNP initiatives intensified in October 2013, when he wrote an opinion piece on the Newman government's anti-bikie legislation.

Mr Fitzgerald predicted on Monday the Newman government would replace its belligerence, with more "soothing" tones.

"The government will persist in its "law and order" populism, but it will tone down its rhetoric," he said.

"Its previous belligerence will be replaced by something unintelligible but soothing such as, 'its total focus on its strong plan to make Queensland the safest place in Australia to live, work, and raise a family'.”

He said the state government would also stop criticising the judiciary.

"The government will suspend its open attacks on the judiciary and hope that the public forgets the damage that it has inflicted on the state's courts and anti-corruption commission."